Argh I’ve been contemplating on when to buy a new rig for a while now. I want one sooooo badlyyyyy... I've got about 2500 dollars in my wallet and really wanna get one... But anyways with Vista w/ DX10 and Conroe coming out and who knows what next year anybody have a suggestion as to when would be a good time to buy? (I need an answer better then never here... if possible...)

Conroe is coming out (July 23?) at surprisingly cheap prices I've been thinking now is the time to buy! However I wanna wait till DX10 cards become available and hopefully by then the prices on the Conroe processors and mobos will have dropped a bit. Anyways, is it a bad idea? Good idea? Why? and when do some of you folks plan on buying new rigs?

Wait a year.

I'll upgrade mine as soon as DX10 cards and Vista are released and they are proven to be worth the effort and money. So that would be about a year and a half probably.

I'd think a good time would be awhile after DX10 cards are out... Let the prices settle

That's what I meant. It seems a little vague from how I typed it but I meant that I would only choose to upgrade if it was worth it.

with a budget of $2500 you have more than enough to build a Conroe system in a month or two and simply upgrade your video card later when DX10 cards are out and you want to play a game that requires it.

whether it's worth it or not depends on what games you want to play... the only game I know of so far that will be DX10 exclusive is Halo2PC, but don't be surprised if other microsoft-branded games will be DX10 exclusive as well.

I'll probably wait till DX10 comes out and get everyone one go. The Conroes will be cheaper then, and you won't be able to unleash the potential of the CPU anyway if you're gonna buy a low end card and wait.

Unless you're gonna do something thats CPU intensive.

Yes that’s right CMH; I probably will have to end up buying a low end card so I will have more to spend on a high end DX10 card. However, I simply couldn’t wait that long and went ahead and bought a computer... haha. You see I'm running a Dell 2400 right now and its so dog gone slow and unbearable that I just had to have a fix before DX10 came out, and all the prices went to reasonable rates. And maybe by then AMD will have come up with an answer for Conroe...

I bought this one...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8821295181&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

I think I got a fairly good deal on it... It will fix my ache for now and I still have plenty for that new system... Two systems are better then one! I think... Well once I get it I’ll try and start OCing it... However I’ll prolly need to replace the PSU and some other parts first and that will cost money too so maybe not... is the stock Antec PSU any good? If not then maybe I'll just leave it be...

Wow, nice system for a great price! Almost EXACTLY what I am running now (take a look at my profile).

Antec make great PSUs, so you have nothing to worry about there at all. And the 3700+ is known to be a great overclocker (although I am still quite happy with it's default speeds for now).

Contrats on a great system! You're going to love it.

Haha thats good to hear...; Now after I determine how much watts I have left to work with I'll start my first noob venture into OCing.. lol. But i'll post my questions about that in a new thread after i get my comp and make assesments...

If you build your own one you will save alot of money. You can even build one with the same spec.

I suppose this was a pretty good deal. I would still have made my own comp however, or at least waited for Conroe.

I'm now in the "saving-money" phase of my new computer. I'd probably get something like that too just to get PCIe and upgrade my graphics for the moment.

the 3700+ will still be a great performing CPU after the release of conroe, it's not like he'll be left in the dark.

nice system shawn, decent price too.

since you are looking to overclock it, you may want to consider upgrading the RAM. Corsair makes good RAM, but the value select that came with your system cannot operate at tight timings. Better RAM will yield a higher total system overclock.

however if you are considering going intel in a few months (switching over to the dark side ), you will have to buy DDR2 RAM anyways so I wouldn't bother in that case.

Also, IBN... he already bought the rig, building is no longer an option. and I don't think you could have built a system with those specs for less money.

Its a used PC so obviously it would be cheaper than buying new parts. Good luck anyway with the rig. You might also want to consider some cooling if you are going to overclock.

it's not a used PC.

No, I won’t be upgrading this... I will build a completely new system from scratch in a year; I've already decided on the specs, however some specs are likely to change as time progresses. This will simply become my second rig when that time comes around.

Yes, building a new computer with these specs likely would of cost more if you consider that just the processor and xfx 7800 gt are already 500 dollars...

The ram was one of my worries also... I will look to put in some thermal compound and different ram soon enough. However are CPU fans really worth the investment? Do they cool better than stock fans by a large enough margins to consider purchasing? I think this is determined by manufacturer, if so please recommend some fans. Try to keep it below 50, I've still gotta buget for a whole new rig .

I don't think I’ll go as far as water cooling - I’ll save that for my next rig. Are there any other good inexpensive cooling solutions out there other then thermal compound and fans?

the stock heatsink will be fine, especially with some arctic silver 5.

the biggest reason people change them is because they make your PC sound like a jet engine! aftermarket coolers almost always have bigger fans. the bigger than fan, the more CFM it produces so it doesn't have to spin as fast. slower speeds obviously mean less noise.

and if built the right way, water cooling can be practically silent (like mine )

as far as temps are concerned, aftermarket air coolers can do a better job of cooling than the stock heatsinks. personally ive been water cooling for years, so I can't suggest any aftermarket air coolers because I haven't used any, i'll leave that up to the "air guys"